26 April 2013

The proof copy of my new book arrived by courier today. I have approved it and it is now listed on Amazon for pre-order, with a publication date of 30 April. It is a rather large book at 680 pages in an 8.5 by 11 inch format with 315,000 words illustrated by over 2400 colour photos, charts and maps. [...]

24 April 2013

One year ago today we sailed Sequitur out of Brazil after enduring more than six weeks in the least-friendly country that we had experienced during our three-year voyage. In the early evening of 24 April 2012 we crossed the line on the chart dividing Brazil from French Guyana and breathed a huge sigh [...]

We have added a new website: Skûtsje ZonderZorg. Zonder zorg in Dutch means without worry. Our intention with the site is to provide a place to share some of the history, geography and culture of the skûtsje as we discover it. We will also use this place to document [...]

We continued to attempt to track-down Douwe Albert Visser, who was the owner of Nieuwe Zorg in 1941 when she was re-registered. One of the problems we repeatedly encountered in our online searches was the effect of currently having Albert Visser and two Douwe Vissers as very competitive skûtsje racers, [...]

While I was researching the history of Nieuwe Zorg, I finally found her first registration details obscured by an apparent typographical error in a transcribed online spreadsheet. She was listed as having been built in 1901 instead of 1908. I emailed the webmaster of the [...]

Another New Book Released

13 January 2014

Michael

I am delighted to announce that my new book: Carefree on the European Canals is now in print and is available on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.uk

With some 45,000 kilometres of inland waterways in Europe, more than a global circumnavigation worth, there is plenty of scope for cruising once the sailor has seen a fill of palm trees and dealt with too many Third-World bureaucracies. The 350-page book is profusely illustrated with over 950 photographs and maps, which add depth and clarity to the narrative and give the readers a better understanding of the day-to-day life while cruising the rivers and canals of Europe.

The book draws from the knowledge and insights gained through my half century of boating experience. It is not a "How To" book, rather it is a look at many of the things that are possible.

New Book Released

26 April 2013

Michael

The proof copy of my new book arrived by courier today. I have approved it and it is now listed on Amazon for pre-order, with a publication date of 30 April. It is a rather large book at 680 pages in an 8.5 by 11 inch format with 315,000 words illustrated by over 2400 colour photos, charts and maps. The Amazon link is:SEQUITUR - to Cape Horn in Comfort and Style

One Year Out of Brazil

24 April 2013

Michael

One year ago today we sailed Sequitur out of Brazil after enduring more than six weeks in the least-friendly country that we had experienced during our three-year voyage. In the early evening of 24 April 2012 we crossed the line on the chart dividing Brazil from French Guyana and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Today the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice published the list of the Most Violent Cities in the world. Brazil has fifteen of the fifty most violent, and tops the list. No wonder we felt uncomfortable there.

Added a New Website

We have added a new website: Skûtsje ZonderZorg. Zonder zorg in Dutch means without worry. Our intention with the site is to provide a place to share some of the history, geography and culture of the skûtsje as we discover it. We will also use this place to document the refit and restoration of our barge and to follow our carefree wanderings and explorations of the European inland waterways.

Still More Skûtsje History

We continued to attempt to track-down Douwe Albert Visser, who was the owner of Nieuwe Zorg in 1941 when she was re-registered. One of the problems we repeatedly encountered in our online searches was the effect of currently having Albert Visser and two Douwe Vissers as very competitive skûtsje racers, each as skipper of one of the fourteen competing skûtsjes in the annual SKS championship series. Yesterday, Douwe Visser Jzn. skippered his crew in the Sneek skûtsje, Pan to another win, decisively capturing this year's fourteen-day, eleven-race series. This was his seventh championship since taking-over as skipper in 1989. Complicating our search further is that a Douwe Visser Azn. is also an SKS skipper, and he won the series championship twice, 2005 and 2009 with the skûtsje, Doarp Grou. He came second in this year's competition. Further confusing our search engines is that Albert Visser Jzn. is the skipper of the SKS Drachten skûtsje, Twee Gebroeders, a serious contender. With all the notable skûtsje involvement of these modern Douwe and Albert Vissers, Google couldn't get us back beyond very recent history.

I did find a Twitter account for one of the Vissers and sent a tweet. On a website profile for another of the Vissers, I used the comments box to post a question about a possible family connection with our skûtsje's 1941 owner.

During my research, I found a wonderful drawing in a museum archive. It depicts a classic working skûtsje with its small roef (deckhouse) aft for the skipper and his family, and also clearly shows the cargo hold with some of its luiken (covering) removed. The classified racing skûtsjes must retain these original features, while the conversions to pleasure generally had the roef removed to fit an engine and to make a cockpit. The hold was then covered over with a more elevated jachtenroef, like on our Nieuwe Zorg.

In the archive I also found a photo of a well-maintained skûtsje in a classic working configuration, though with a roef higher and slightly longer than usual. The curve of the roofline repeats the sheer of the gangboord and berghout (gunwale and rubbing strake), and this we have seen repeated on the most pleasing looking of the lengthened jachtenroef conversions, like on our Nieuwe Zorg.

On another site I found the proportions of the optimal skûtsje. The mast is 105% of the length of the barge, the foot of the mainsail is 50% of the barge length, the gaff is 100% of the beam of the barge and the rudder length is 50% of the barge's beam, and with its skeg, it extends 30 centimetres below the barge's bottom. These data will be useful as we move toward restoring Nieuwe Zorg to full sailing trim.

Some More Skûtsje History

While I was researching the history of Nieuwe Zorg, I finally found her first registration details obscured by an apparent typographical error in a transcribed online spreadsheet. She was listed as having been built in 1901 instead of 1908. I emailed the webmaster of the site and pointed out the apparent error to him, and asked for confirmation that it actually is an error.

A few days later I received a reply from Frits Jansen, the webmaster of the site confirming that the date had been mis-typed when compiling the spreadsheet from the original ledger. He told me that it would soon be corrected on the website. Frits attached a photo of a spread of pages of the Sneek registration ledger showing De Nieuwe Zorg as the last entry.

On the facing page, the registration continues with her measurements all written-out in words. Her first measurement on 20 March 1909 gave her length as 16.33 metres and her beam as 3.43 metres. A later measurement is referenced with new registration number, G6496N. Under Notations, the final column, is an undated entry indicating the registration was cancelled.

The second registration number, G6496 matches that found in the details page for S831N. De Nieuwe Zorg's owner shown at the time of the second measurement on 25 June 1941 was Douwe Albert Visser of Stavoren. We have attempted to locate some mention of Douwe Albert Visser online, so far without success.

Among the things we have found so far is a photograph of the Wildschut boatyard in Gaastmeer, thought to have been taken in 1907, around the time when our skûtsje was being built. The three Wildschut brothers, Age, Jelle and Jetze are at the far left.

Also, we have found an undated photo captioned Age Vaandriks at work aboard his skûtsje. Age had De Nieue Zorg built by Wildschut in 1908, and later, in 1925 had a second skûtsje, Dankbaarheid built by Wolthuis in Sappemeer. Whether this is our Nieuwe Zorg or his later skûtsje, Dankbaarheid we don't yet know. In the photo Age appears to be sitting and enjoying a pipe.

One very interesting online discovery we made was an interactive page with a detailed drawing of a skûtsje with part names in both Dutch and Fryske. The link to the interactive page is here. This will be very useful to us as we head into restoring Nieuwe Zorg to full sailing trim.